But sometimes, there's just that much work to do, and in a 5 or 6 person company, the work load is just that much greater while they're bootstrapping their way to a product.
Exactly. AT an early stage, the product goes through a ton of changes and when they happen the team often needs to work even more to catch up. Having a team that's willing to go through that kind of pressure and still keep truckin' improves the odds of success.